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The Little Brady Bunch Rascals Movie Double Feature
The Brady Bunch Movie is a 1995 American comedy film based on the 1969–1974 television series The Brady Bunch. The film features all the original regular characters, all played by new actors. It also took the unusual route of placing the original sitcom characters, with their 1970s fashion sense and 1970s sitcom family morality, in a contemporary 1990s setting, and parodied the resulting culture clash, and The Little Rascals is a 1994 American comedy film produced by Amblin Entertainment, and released by Universal Pictures on August 5, 1994. The film is an adaptation of Hal Roach's Our Gang, a series of short films of the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s (later broadcast on television as The Little Rascals) which centered around the adventures of a group of neighborhood children. The film, with a screenplay by Paul Guay, Stephen Mazur, and Penelope Spheeris — who also directed — presents several of the Our Gang ''characters in an updated setting, and features re-interpretations of several of the original shorts. Plot The film opens with a montage of scenes reflecting life in the 1990s, with heavy traffic, rushing commuters, and homeless people on the street. Larry Dittmeyer (Michael McKean), an unscrupulous real estate developer, explains to his boss that almost all the families in his neighborhood have agreed to sell their property as part of a plan to turn the area into a shopping mall. The only exception is one family, which prompts his angry boss to ask, "What's their story?" which leads into the opening blue-box credits of ''The Brady Bunch. "The He-Man 'Womun' Haters Club" is a club of local school-aged boys, all of whom refuse to play with girls. The boys are entering their go-cart, the "Blur," in the annual go-cart race which the neighborhood bullies, Butch and Woim, are determined to win. Spanky wants to win the race, since his favorite racing driver, A.J. Ferguson, will award first prize. Alfalfa, club member and best friend of president Spanky, is selected to drive the Blur in the race. However since Alfalfa had apparently skipped the meeting, the boys search for him and find Alfalfa in the middle of a romantic boat ride with his girlfriend, Darla. Since Alfalfa's relationship with Darla interferes with the club's rule of forbidding a club member to play with or have a romantic relationship with girls, the other club members try to spoil Alfalfa and Darla's romantic boat ride in hopes of breaking them up. However, their plans fail, and Darla and Alfalfa schedule a romantic picnic in the clubhouse. The concept of the film is that although it is set in the 1990s, the Brady family are still portrayed as their 1970s television incarnationsand are unaware of the disparity between their lives and their surroundings. The parents, Mike (Gary Cole) and Carol (Shelley Long), are having breakfast prepared by their housekeeper, Alice (Henriette Mantel), while the six children prepare for school. Jan (Jennifer Elise Cox) is jealous of her elder, popular sister Marcia (Christine Taylor); Cindy (Olivia Hack) is tattling about everything she's hearing; Greg (Christopher Daniel Barnes) is dreaming of becoming a singer; Peter (Paul Sutera) is nervous that his voice is breaking; Bobby (Jesse Lee) is excited about his new role as hall monitor at school. Alfalfa is chased by Butch and Woim, who end up being spray-painted, and runs into Darla and Waldo, a rich kid who has just moved into town. Alfalfa and Waldo immediately form a rivalry because they both want Darla. Cindy gives Mike and Carol a tax delinquency notice (which was earlier mistakenly delivered to the Dittmeyers) stating that they faceforeclosure on their house if they do not pay $20,000 in back taxes. The two initially ignore the crisis, but when Mike's architectural design is turned down by two potential clients, he tells Carol that they may have to sell the house. Cindy overhears this and tells her siblings and they look for work to raise money to save the house, but their earnings are nowhere near enough to reach the required sum. Soon after, the other He-Man "Womun" Haters secretly spy on the couple during their picnic, and make several attempts to ruin it like putting kitty litter in their sandwichs and pouring their juice out of a dirty sneaker, until Alfalfa notices and quickly brings his date with Darla to an early end. He quickly blows out the candles and stores the dining room table in a closet, accidentally leaving one lit, and he makes Darla hide in the clubhouse until he can convince the other boys that he and Darla were not doing anything in there. But Darla thinks that Alfalfa is ashamed of her, so she tries to escape the clubhouse by driving away in the Blur and crashing through the clubhouse walls. The candle Alfalfa didn't blow out also sets the clubhouse on fire. The boys quickly try to put the fire out (Buckwheat and Porky, were sent to call the fire department, but neither one of them knew the number for 9-1-1, so the club did not get any professional help from fire-fighters). Alfalfa faints after the clubhouse catches fire, and while he is passed out the other boys finish putting out the fire. As Darla tosses the ring Alfalfa gave her earlier back to him before leaving with Waldo, who previously tried to win her over with near success, she says " I never wanna speak to you as long as I live. Tell him when he comes to, guys." In a subplot, Marcia is asked by popular Doug Simpson (Shane Conrad) to go to the school dance with him, when she had already promised to go with nerdy Charlie Anderson (R.D. Robb). She explains the "difficulty" of the choice to her friend, Noreen (Alanna Ubach), unaware that she is a lesbian and is attracted to Marcia herself. She ends up breaking her promise to Charlie. On the night of the dance, Doug takes her to a lookout point where he French kisses her, only for her to say that she's not interested. He abandons her at the side of the road, but she is rescued when a limousine arrives. She later arrives at the dance and introduces the star performer of the night, Davy Jones. He gets a rousing reception from the teachers, and when the backing rock band charges up his performance, the kids respond, too. Marcia apologizes to Charlie, who forgives her and asks her to dance with him. After Alfalfa regains consciousness, the other club members punish him by forcing him to guard the Blur every night and day until the day of the race. On the first night. Alfalfa has a nightmare where he is with Darla (who likes him) and Spanky blows him off a cliff and he wakes at that moment where the He-man Woman hater club convinces him that girls are no good while Darla's friends do Porky the same on the same night and they all scream (also in dream) when there's thunder. Alfalfa doesn't take their rules and still loves Darla. Larry discovers that the Bradys have past-due property taxes and confronts Mike, only to learn that he has finally sold one of his designs and has the money he needs. Larry secretly meets with the client, claiming (falsely) that Mike's design resulted in a building collapse, which causes him to lose his advance. On the night before the Bradys have to move out, Marcia suggests that they enter a "Search for the Stars" contest, the prize of which is exactly $20,000. Jan, having originally suggested this and been rejected, runs away from home. Cindy sees her leave and tattles, and the whole family goes on a search for her. They use their car's C.B. radio, and their transmission is heard by Schultzy (Ann B. Davis), a driver who picks up Jan and convinces her to return home. In order to win her back, Alfalfa pretends to write Darla a hate note but really writes her a love note for Porky and Buckwheat to deliver to her. They lose the note on the way to Darla's house but Buckwheat remembers what Alfalfa told them the note "said" and recites to Darla, who hates Alfalfa even more. Alfalfa tries to win Darla back by going to her ballet recital and writing a love letter, but a mix-up happens and he only makes Darla more upset. Alfalfa is taken off duty of guarding the go-cart, so Porky and Buckwheat are assigned to do so instead. However, Butch and Woim lure the two young boys away from the Blur by tying a dollar bill to a duck's tail and sending the duck right past the go-cart. Even after setting off a booby trap involving a pickle jar being dropped on them both. The He-Man Woman Haters try to raise money to afford both a new clubhouse at a local fair, and they try to come up with at least $450. They try several different schemes, including trying to buy lumber with a pile of pennies, and trying to get money from a bank by disguising themselves as adults. However, Porky and Buckwheat manage to raise $500 by putting up an "Admisshun $3" sign at the free talent show, but the boys' schoolteacher Miss Crabtree finds out soon and scolds them for tricking people. However, Spanky suggests using the money Porky and Buckwheat raised as prize money for the go-cart race, which their teacher agrees to. During the talent show, Waldo and Darla sing a duet which was first supposed to be sung by Alfalfa but when Darla got mad at him she decided to sing it with Waldo. Alfalfa drives the Blur to the talent show and sees them on stage together, and he gets really upset and decides to enter the talent show and sing to her. Spanky ruins his talent by moving things around on the stage, and Waldo puts soap in the water that he is drinking before he sings, causing him to burp bubbles during his song. Darla is ashamed of the performance and leaves. Butch and Woim manage to steal the Blur so they can use it in the go-cart race. Once the He-Man Woman Haters discover that the Blur has been stolen, Spanky gets into a fight with Alfalfa, and the two end their friendship. Later, after some prodding from the other club members, the two reconcile. The next day, the children join the "Search for the Stars" contest with a dated performance that receives poor audience response compared to the more modern performances of other bands. However, the judges — Jones, Micky Dolenz, and Peter Tork, all of the 1960s band The Monkees — vote for them, who win the contest as a result. The tax bill is paid and their neighbors withdraw their homes from the market, foiling Larry's plan and securing the neighborhood. The film ends with the arrival of Carol's mother (Florence Henderson), who finally convinces Jan to stop obsessing over Marcia, only for Cindy to start feeling jealous of Jan. The boys manage to build a new go-cart in time for the race, and Alfalfa is the driver, as originally planned, with Spanky riding along. Woim and Butch have repainted the Blur and pass it off as their own go-cart, and try to cheat their way to winning during the race. Darla, who is racing with Waldo, eventually gets tired of Waldo's attitude and starts to yearn for Alfalfa, so Waldo appears to abandon Darla in the middle of the race and takes off. Eventually, after a heated race, the He-Man Woman Haters win the race, much to the chagrin of Waldo, Butch, and Woim. Alfalfa stands up to Butch by punching him into a pile of pig slop and Woim jumps in to avoid being hit. Darla reunites with Alfalfa, and their romantic relationship starts all over again. When being awarded their trophy and prize money, Spanky gets to meet A.J. Ferguson, who turns out to be a woman. She kisses Spanky's cheek (Spanky then asks for another kiss one other cheek), though Spanky himself does not mind it, his opinion about females stubbornly has not officially changed, though the rest of the club members besides Spanky also gain girlfriends after the race. And finally, Spanky gives in to his now girl-loving friends, and "Women Welcome" is added to the new clubhouse sign (thus repealing the No Women rule), for the club members have managed to purchase a new clubhouse with their prize money. Then Uh-huh (one of the club members who always says uh-huh) learns a new word. In the end credits, the Bradys are in their traditional blue boxes, but are updated for the time and include various humorous outtakes. Cast *Gary Cole as Mike Brady *Shelley Long as Carol Brady *Henriette Mantel as Alice Nelson *Christopher Daniel Barnes as Greg Brady *Travis Tedford - Spanky - "He-Man Women Hater's Club" president *Bug Hall as Alfalfa - Spanky's best friend and Darla's boyfriend *Brittany Ashton Holmes as Darla - the love interest of Alfalfa *Christine Taylor as Marcia Brady *Paul Sutera as Peter Brady *Jennifer Elise Cox as Jan Brady *Kevin Jamal Woods as Stymie - the club's vice-president. *Jordan Warkol as Froggy (voice dubbed by E.G. Daily) - club member with a croaking voice and a love for amphibians. *Zachary Mabry as Porky - club member, a toddler. *Ross Bagley as Buckwheat - club member, Porky's best friend. *Sam Saletta as Butch, the neighborhood bully *Blake Jeremy Collins as The Woim, Butch's friend *Blake McIver Ewing as Waldo, a rich kid who just moved into town *Courtland Mead as Uh-huh - club "typographer", always answers "uh-huh". *Petey - a neighborhood pit bull, possibly owned by Spanky. *Elmer - the pet White-throated Capuchin Monkey of a nameless club member. *Raven-Symone - girl talking to Stymie *Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen - Twins. *Juliette Brewer - Mary Ann *Heather Karasek - Jane *Fifi - a Doberman Pinscher who is a pet of Waldo. *Jesse Lee as Bobby Brady *Olivia Hack as Cindy Brady *David Graf as Sam Franklin *Megan Ward as Donna Leonard *Michael McKean as Larry Dittmeyer *Jean Smart as Dena Dittmeyer *Moriah Snyder as Missy Dittmeyer *Jack Noseworthy as Eric Dittmeyer *Alanna Ubach as Noreen *Shane Conrad as Doug Simpson *Marissa Ribisi as Holly *R.D. Robb as Charlie Anderson *Elisa Pensler-Gabrielli as Miss Linley *RuPaul as Mrs. Cummings *"Mudd Pagoda" David Darling, vocals; Marc Danzeisen, drums; Roger Manning, Jr, keyboards; Eric Dover, guitar; and Sheldon Strickland, bass guitar as members of the high school band *Davy Jones as himself *Micky Dolenz as himself *Peter Tork as himself *Mel Brooks as Mr Welling - the pompous and rude bank teller. *Lea Thompson as Miss Roberts - Darla's ballet instructor. *Daryl Hannah as Miss Crabtree - the gang's school teacher. *Reba McEntire as A.J. Ferguson - "the best driver there is". *Eric Edwards as Spanky's father. *Dan Carton as Alfalfa's father. *Whoopi Goldberg as Buckwheat's mother. *Donald Trump as Waldo's father. *George Wendt as Lumber Store Guy. *Ann B. Davis, the original Alice, plays a trucker. Her character's name, Schultzy, was a reference to her most famous role prior to The Brady Bunch, that of Charmaine "Schultzy" Schultz, on The Bob Cummings Show. *Christopher Knight, the original Peter, plays a coach who stops two boys from bullying the film's Peter in a cafeteria scene. *Barry Williams, the original Greg, plays a record producer who rejects the film's Greg's attempts to sell his song. *Florence Henderson, the original Carol, plays the film's grandmother. *Mike Lookinland, the original Bobby, played the 3rd cop but his scenes got deleted. *Susan Olsen, the original Cindy, played a news reporter but her scene got deleted. *Maureen McCormick, the original Marcia, played Lemonade Lady, but her scene got deleted.The only 1960s Brady family members who didn't have a role in this movie were Robert Reed and Eve Plumb. Reed died 3 years before this film was released. It is unknown why Plumb did not participate in this film. Production The film was shot entirely in Los Angeles, California, with the Brady house being located in Sherman Oaks. The school scenes were shot at Taft High School in Woodland Hills. Several of the surviving [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Gang_personnel Our Gang cast members] were less than pleased about not being asked to be consultants and make cameos for the feature film. George McFarland, the original "Spanky", died in June 1993, during the early stages of filming. The producers had sought to film the original house that had been used for exterior shots during the original Brady Bunch series, but the owner of the Studio City, California home refused to restore the property to its 1969 appearance. Instead, the filmmakers erected a facade around a house in nearby Encino and filmed scenes in the front yard. Reception The film's response among critics has been mixed. Although bearing a 61% "Fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes, the consensus stated, "Though lightweight and silly, The Brady Bunch Movie and The Little Rascals still charms as homage to the sitcom." The film opened at #1 at the box pack office with $14,827,066, and the film was not well received with critics upon its original release. It currently holds a 27% "rotten" rating at Rotten Tomatoes. Box Pack office The Little Rascals and The Brady Bunch Movie earned $100 million dollars at the North American box office during its opening weekend. The film grossed a worldwide total of $67,308,282. Repurposed scenes and situations Many of the gags and subplots in the film were borrowed from the original Our Gang/Little Rascals shorts. These include: *The scene in which Buckwheat (Ross Begley) and Porky (Zachary Mabry) are fishing and get their fishing poles caught onto each other originates from a scene in the 1943 Our Gang short Three Smart Guys with Buckwheat, Froggy and Mickey. *The He-Man Woman Haters Club originally appeared in the 1937 Our Gang short Hearts are Thumps; the club would return in the short Mail and Female the same year. The plots for both shorts were reused for this movie. In addition, the scene where the gang ruins Alfalfa and Darla's lunch date, as well as the scene where bubbles come out of Alfalfa's mouth while he sings, were borrowed gags from Hearts are Thumps. Alfalfa sending Buckwheat and Porky to deliver a love note to Darla was borrowed from Mail and Female. *The "hi-sign" originally appeared in the 1935 Our Gang short Anniversary Trouble. *The kids dressing up as fire fighters and attempting to put out a fire appeared in the Our Gang shorts Fire Fighters (1922), The Fourth Alarm (1926), and Hook and Ladder(1932). The gag in which Spanky (Travis Tedford) winds up on a flying water hose was originally used with Farina in The Fourth Alarm. *The gag involving Spanky (Travis Tedford) and Stymie (Kevin Woods) disguising as adults appeared in a handful of Our Gang shorts. Mickey Daniels and Johnny Downsattempted to dress up as Santa Claus with this gag in the 1926 short Good Cheer. Farina and Pleurisy tried this routine in the 1929 short Election Day. Stymie and Dickie Mooretried it in the 1933 short Fish Hooky, while Spanky and Alfalfa tried pulling it off in both the 1935 short Teacher's Beau and the 1936 short Two Too Young. *The scene in which Spanky (Travis Tedford) and Alfalfa (Bug Hall) accidentally find themselves performing in a ballet recital was inspired by the plot of the 1937 short Rushin' Ballet. The costumes that the duo wear are exact replicas of the costumes that the original Spanky and Alfalfa wore in Rushin' Ballet. The gag in which Alfalfa gets a frog stuck in his tutu was originally used in the 1937 short Framing Youth. *Bug Hall singing "The Barber of Seville" is an obvious nod to Our Gang Follies of 1938. *The idea of the kids building their own vehicle out of junk and scrap metal had been used in several Our Gang shorts, most notably the 1934 short Hi'-Neighbor!. The gag in which the kids' car causes several adults to leap into the air was also borrowed from Hi'-Neighbor!, and also appears in One Wild Ride (1925), Free Wheeling (1932), and Divot Diggers (1936). *Much of the derby race climax (including the gag in which the car belonging to Butch and Woim accidentally goes into reverse) was borrowed from the 1939 short Auto Antics. Material from Hi'-Neighbor and Three Men in a Tub (1938) is also present. Censorship A number of scenes shown in trailers were cut at the last minute because producer Sherwood Schwartz objected. These included a grunge band scene in the garage with Greg and Eddie, and a seduction scene between Mrs. Dittmeyer and Peter. Some of these scenes were edited back in for the network TV showings, but not for the DVD edition. See also *1994 & 1995 in film *''A Very Brady Sequel & My Girl'' Category:DeviantART Category:1994 & 1995 films Category:F.Y.E